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P R E FA C E
found to be good and useful. He identifies the conceptual limitations and
practical constraints of old and new approaches, whether from the Lotka–
Volterra model or recent structured population models. Boyce carefully analyzes the ways model are or can be validated, a necessary step in making a useful model, and he develops the need for adaptive management, where models
play a role that is strictly integrated into the monitoring of model predictions.
Population viability analyses (pvas) have become one of the most popular
techniques used to assess conservation options for small populations. Several
tools have been developed to carry out such analyses, but despite their great
importance in conservation biology, Gary C. White, in chapter 9, discusses
why the current techniques are largely unsatisfactory. He identifies the weaknesses of most estimates of population viability and points out the basic failures of most models: their inability to account for individual variation within
the population and for life-long individual heterogeneity. White also explores
other aspects of current PVA methods and shows that, as they stand, they are
often useless for conservation purposes. White’s critical approach is a powerful
warning against the use of PVA results for practical conservation, but also shows
the potential role of improved PVA models as research tools for understanding
the dynamics of small populations.
Ethological aspects underlie many ecological studies of animals, and even
though the two disciplines refer to two different theoretical and methodological frameworks, ecologists must become familiar with behavioral methods. In
chapter 10, David W. Macdonald, Paul D. Stewart, Pavel Stopka, and
Nobuyuki Yamaguchi provide a short guide to the main problems of measuring the dynamics of mammal societies. The greater emphasis is on social
behavior, with particular attention to the many new concepts in behavioral
ecology, together with the refinement of sequential statistical techniques and,
very importantly, the development of many software packages to facilitate the
description of social dynamics. The chapter develops the identification of the
social parameters that one might choose to define the social dynamics of mammal societies, the description of the methods used to record the most important parameters, and an introduction to the style of quantitative ethological
analyses currently in vogue (e.g., lag sequential analysis and multiple-matrix
analysis). The chapter ends by proposing a new conceptual framework for
interpreting data and asking whether parallels in the development of ecological communities and animal societies are merely analogies or evidence of similar underlying processes.
The final chapter, by Fabio Corsi, Jan de Leeuw, and Andrew Skidmore,
presents state-of-the-art uses of geographic information systems (GISs) in the
study of species distribution. Although the GIS is a fairly new and attractive tool
P R E FA C E
found to be good and useful. He identifies the conceptual limitations and
practical constraints of old and new approaches, whether from the Lotka–
Volterra model or recent structured population models. Boyce carefully analyzes the ways model are or can be validated, a necessary step in making a useful model, and he develops the need for adaptive management, where models
play a role that is strictly integrated into the monitoring of model predictions.
Population viability analyses (pvas) have become one of the most popular
techniques used to assess conservation options for small populations. Several
tools have been developed to carry out such analyses, but despite their great
importance in conservation biology, Gary C. White, in chapter 9, discusses
why the current techniques are largely unsatisfactory. He identifies the weaknesses of most estimates of population viability and points out the basic failures of most models: their inability to account for individual variation within
the population and for life-long individual heterogeneity. White also explores
other aspects of current PVA methods and shows that, as they stand, they are
often useless for conservation purposes. White’s critical approach is a powerful
warning against the use of PVA results for practical conservation, but also shows
the potential role of improved PVA models as research tools for understanding
the dynamics of small populations.
Ethological aspects underlie many ecological studies of animals, and even
though the two disciplines refer to two different theoretical and methodological frameworks, ecologists must become familiar with behavioral methods. In
chapter 10, David W. Macdonald, Paul D. Stewart, Pavel Stopka, and
Nobuyuki Yamaguchi provide a short guide to the main problems of measuring the dynamics of mammal societies. The greater emphasis is on social
behavior, with particular attention to the many new concepts in behavioral
ecology, together with the refinement of sequential statistical techniques and,
very importantly, the development of many software packages to facilitate the
description of social dynamics. The chapter develops the identification of the
social parameters that one might choose to define the social dynamics of mammal societies, the description of the methods used to record the most important parameters, and an introduction to the style of quantitative ethological
analyses currently in vogue (e.g., lag sequential analysis and multiple-matrix
analysis). The chapter ends by proposing a new conceptual framework for
interpreting data and asking whether parallels in the development of ecological communities and animal societies are merely analogies or evidence of similar underlying processes.
The final chapter, by Fabio Corsi, Jan de Leeuw, and Andrew Skidmore,
presents state-of-the-art uses of geographic information systems (GISs) in the
study of species distribution. Although the GIS is a fairly new and attractive tool